Good Places to Start
A Journey into the Wilds of Sci-Fi Begins with the First Step
Be Careful Where You Step
Alien Boobytraps are Everywhere
Here are a dozen short stories and one short novel from many years ago. The first two are selected for their tantalizing accuracy about the future. Hopefully most of the works here can encourage "out of the box" thinking to help young people cope with a century that is sure to consist of interesting times.
All Day September - (15 pg) - Text Version
This story makes the connection between real science and relevant science fiction very obvious. On October 9th of 2009 NASA fired a 2000 lb. rocket into the Moon to produce a kinetic energy explosion to hurl material into space in an attempt to find water on the Moon. Any long term manned operations on the Moon will require water and be limited by the water supply. This SF writer could forsee and speculate about that 50 years ago. That speculation was no fantasy.
This Crowded Earth - (107 pg) - Text Version
Here is a story that makes the connection between the real future and and the state of the world today very obvious. This SF writer could forsee and speculate about the world population 50 years ago and that speculation came quite close. This book talks about the population being 6 billion in 1997 though it had not reached 3 billion in 1958 when the story was published. He was off by only two years. That 6 billion figure was reached in 1999. Today's children will have to deal with the global effects of an even more vast population when they become adults.
Second Landing - (7 pg) - Text Version
This is a tale of some confused aliens that are more successful than expected in their peaceful mission to Earth.
Revenge - (8 pg) - Text Version
Brainy people just don't see problems the same way as everyone else. Beware of them deciding that you are the problem.
The Deadly Daughters - (10 pg) - Text Version
Here is a story for those paranoid about the femiN AZIs wearing the pants. Get your guns boys those bro... uh ladies are trying to take over.
Coffin Cure - (16 pg) - Text Version
Medicine can be very ticklish. There is always the possibility that a successful cure may have unexpected side effects. The cure can be worse than the disease.
Arm of the Law - (18 pg) - Text Version
The trouble with people and the law is that people don't quite follow their own laws. Now if we ever get intelligent robots how are we going to get that into their programming?
Pandemic - (19 pg) - Text Version
We have bird flu and swine flu and the hantavirus and jet planes to carry any contagion around the world in a matter of hours. This is a story of the human race coming up snake-eyes in the disease lottery. But the story is extremely ironic considering what has happened to the tobacco industry since 1962.
Subversive - (20 pg) - Text Version
Mack Reynolds dealt with social and economic issues in a more down to earth fashion than any other sci-fi writer of the 60s. What does this story say about the economics of today and what we didn't straighten out back then?
The Native Soil - (22 pg) - Text Version
Here the pushy Earthmen are the alien invaders and the natives have a trick or two up their sleeves. Oh sorry, they don't have sleeves. The movie Avatar by James Cameron is another version of this story.
Project Mastadon - (32 pg) - Text Version
This story demonstrates that animals can't be trusted with delicate technology. Have you seen what cat hair can do to a laptop computer? It's frightening.
Day of the Moron - (33 pg) - Text Version
This story shows that humans can't be trusted with delicate technology. Curiously this was written 35 years before the debacle at Chernobyl. Fortunately the morons were in another country.
Cat and Mouse - (28 pg) - Text Version
Here is an entertaining tale though it may be more fanciful than most good science fiction. In 1960 it was nominated for the short story Hugo award, which is one of the top honors for science fiction in the United States. So there is definitely some quality material floating around in Project Gutenberg, it just needs to be fished out of the seaweed.
